News

Little Flower suing over lost contract with New York City

Little Flower Children and Family Services is locked into a legal
battle with the City of New York over the loss of its foster care
contract earlier this year.
At
the heart of the lawsuit is a recent request for proposals system that
saw the city offer new contracts to different agencies and not Little
Flower. The cases of about 1,400 foster children — including 85 on
Long Island — will be transferred to other agencies to administer
under the new contracts. The lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan
against the city and the Administration of Children’s Services June 14,
alleges the contract selection process by which Little Flower was
dumped was unfair. The complaint alleges proposal writing was valued
more than the quality of Little Flower’s services and the evaluation
and scoring of the proposals were not transparent.
City law department spokeswoman Elizabeth Thomas declined comment on the pending litigation.
Little
Flower Children and Family Services was founded in 1927 by a Roman
Catholic priest who wished to set up an orphanage for homeless children
on a 122-acre piece of property in Wading River. The organization
branched out over the years to provide services for children, families
and developmentally disabled adults. There are presently three office
locations including Wading River, Queens and Brooklyn.
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